Accordion Noir Radio

Since December of 2006, Bruce Triggs and Rowan Lipkovits have broadcast an hour of alt-accordion music weekly to listeners of CFRO Co-Op Community Radio, presently at 100.5 fm. Currently airing from 10-11 pm Wednesday nights, the show can also be enjoyed live from Starchoice channel 845 and as a stream from coopradio.org as well as by podcast subscription, through radioplayer.ca or individual download at accordionnoir.org — every episode for its first five years has been digitized and is available online, and consequently is the first place you should ever look if you’re interested in listening to over 300 hours of curated alternative accordion music.

In addition to playing pre-recorded music from Bruce’s collection and music that is sent to us, Rowan is always on tap to provide some live accordion playing, and they make an effort to regularly schedule both local and traveling guests on the show, both in-person and remotely. Some of our more distinguished interview subjects have included Frank Marocco, Kimmo Pohjonen from Finland, Krist Novoselic of Giants in the Trees, Jenny Conlee of the Decemberists, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Wendy McNeill, Geoff Berner, Miss Murgatroid, Katie “Kaboom” McConnell of the Mahones, John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, Daran Kravahn from Cambodia, Petar Ralchev from Bulgaria, authors Victoria Miles and Michelle Mulder, and scholar Jared Snyder.

Occasionally an episode will be set aside to throw another underdog instrument in the spotlight: these have included…